Have you ever tried to save a few dollars by doing some home improvement yourself, only to find out that it probably cost more than paying someone to do it? Well, I met a guy one time who really regretted trying to save a buck by doing an HVAC repair himself.
I went to his house for an energy audit and, as part of the normal audit routine, I asked him what his concerns were, why he wanted to have the energy audit. He explained that he had a bedroom on the second floor that was always too hot. It didn’t matter what season, winter or summer, the room was always too hot. That was a new one for me; usually, people tell me the room is too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, but hot for both seasons. Something was up that needed investigating.
Initially, I figured it had something to do with low attic insulation and unsealed air leaks in the ceiling above the room. These issues would explain the extra heat in the summertime. Since there wouldn’t be an effective barrier to separate this bedroom from the 120-degree attic temperatures. After taking a look up in the attic, I was right the insulation was only about 4” deep, and none of the air leaks at the electric wires or plumbing pipes were properly sealed.
But this issue wouldn’t explain why the homeowner would experience the room being too hot in the winter. I figured maybe that was caused by getting too much heat delivered to the room. I came to find out that the home did not have a typical ducted heating system, but rather it had electric resistance cables inset into the drywall ceiling. Think of it like the coils of an electric oven, but inset into the ceiling. There was a thermostat in every room of the house, and you could set the room to whatever temperature you want, and the cable ceiling heat would turn on and heat the room. I was doing the energy audit in the summer (July), but I figured I’d take a look at the ceiling with my infrared camera. I was shocked to find that the heat was on! I went to the thermostat thinking that it had been accidentally cranked up, but found that it was set to 60 degrees - its lowest setting. Then I figured, maybe the infrared image was wrong, so I got up on a ladder and put my hand to the ceiling, sure enough it was hot!.
I brought the homeowner over to show him what I’d found and started speculating that the thermostat must have failed. He put his hand over his face, and said “Oh no!”. Apparently, a few years back, the thermostat had failed, and in an effort to save a few dollars, he decided to change it out himself instead of calling an HVAC company. As it turns out, he wired it improperly so that it was always calling for heat.
Can you imagine, he was air conditioning his house in the summer, WHILE also heating this room! He learned from his lesson and called an HVAC company to come fix the issue properly this time. I was so thrilled to have helped him figure out this mystery.
Atlas Home Energy
